The Israeli interior minister, Roni Bar-On, declared that his ministry has planned the demolition of more than 42,000 homes of Palestinian Bedouins that were built even before 1948 when Israel was proclaimed. The minister, speaking at a session for the Israeli parliament's interior committee, claimed that all those houses were "illegal" and warned that any new homes built in the so-called "unrecognized" villages in the Negev desert would be razed.

According to PIC, the regional council for those villages, not recognized by Israel, said in a statement commenting on the minister's statement said that what the minister threatened meant the destruction of an entire community.

On the ground, the Israeli authorities on Wednesday demolished 17 houses in Tawil village, Negev desert, and assaulted an old woman and four young men who tried to stop them.